On 2 April 1911, Emily Davison, the suffragette who would die in protest two years later under King George V’s horse, Anmer, at the Derby, crept into Parliament and hid in in a cupboard in St Mary Undercroft, the chapel of the Palace of Westminster. The date was important. It was census night and Davison was part of a wider suffragette movement to boycott the official survey of the nation until women had the vote.
Some women spoiled their forms and others ensured they were not in lodgings on the vital date. One group of suffragettes met up for a picnic on Wimbledon Common while others spent the night singing in Trafalgar Square.
Davison was found by a cleaner. The clerk of works at the House of Commons entered her into the census; her postal address was listed as “found hiding in the crypt of Westminster Hall”.
The fact the suffragettes did all they could to boycott the census shows just how important it was – this investigation into the make-up of the country, collected every decade, was a crucial insight for the government on the country
Now, it is here once more. Scotland has postponed its census until 2022, because of the pandemic – but this week, England and Wales are gearing up for their 51 questions, and Northern Ireland for 40 of its own. This is the first census that we are expected to answer online and it must be filled in this Sunday, 21 March, or as soon as possible thereafter.
For historians like me, the census provides a treasure trove of information statistics covering population-wide trends, on subjects such as age, ethnicity and marital status, which are released within a couple of years – but individual responses are only released 100 years later.
We love the revelations these throw up, particularly from people who leave no other records – meaning we can find out who lived where, with whom, and what constituted a household. But the census is not always popular.
Amusing answers
Pets have sometimes been recorded as family members, with names and ages and occupations provided. Eight-year-old “Tom Cat” was listed by one family in Birkenhead in 1911, with the profession of “mouse-catcher”.
The “infirmities” section of Victorian Censuses were often filled in as family jokes, with entries such as “bad-tempered”. Among some of the occupations recorded over the years were a “Lucifer woman” and a “sad-iron maker”.
In the 1880 US census, a 15-year-old girl had her occupation recorded as “does as she pleases”.
An ancient tradition
The first official census as we would recognise it was in 1841, but the principle of trying to record what constitutes the nation goes further back
After William the Conqueror invaded Saxon England in 1066, he commissioned a great survey of England, dubbed the Domesday Book because it marked a ‘day of judgement’.
It was essentially a survey of what taxes were owed, and so it was much resented at the time. But the irritation of 11th-century lords has become our historical gain. As a complete survey of pre-industrial land, it is a treasure beyond value in the National Archives.
The word ‘census’ comes from the Latin, censure, ‘to estimate’. Census-taking had been a regular part of the ancient world from as early as 3800BC.
The Mesopotamians, living in what would become part of the Babylonian empire – much of modern-day Iraq – assessed people, livestock and valuables such as butter with data recorded by travelling scribes on clay tablets. China took regular accounts, noting a population of 57.67 million in 2AD. The Romans counted individuals and their properties for taxation purposes.
Responding to the Roman census was quite an undertaking. According to the Bible, in Luke 2:1, the reason Joseph and the heavily pregnant Mary had to make the arduous journey to Bethlehem, the home of Joseph’s ancestors, was that everyone had to be counted under a decree ordered by Emperor Augustus.
It was because all the hotels were full of other census participants that Mary had to give birth to the baby Jesus in a stable.
A census could be risky, as the Book of Samuel tells us in the Old Testament. King David ordered a census of Israel and Judah for military reasons, against all advice – and induced the wrath of God. Even the Almighty could dislike a census.
After the Domesday Book, few coherent efforts were made to assess populations of the British Isles. Often, those that were made were part the imposition of power on colonised territories.
After the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell commissioned a survey of Ireland because he wished to seize land from Irish Catholics and give it to English Protestants.
In 1703, Iceland counted its citizens – the oldest census still in existence that lists population, age and occupation, with over 50,000 people recorded.
In 1753, the first Bill was introduced into Parliament suggesting a census of all those living in Britain. It was defeated. People feared their information would be used against them or would give enemies too much detail about weak spots in the country’s defences.
In 1790, the United States, 14 years after declaring independence, created its first census, asking heads of households to account for those who lived in their homes. Slaves counted as three-fifths of a person. Native Americans were not counted. The census makes it very clear who the state believes matters and who does not.
The UK through the ages
After the French Revolution, Britain feared insurrection due to population outpacing food supply, a concern influenced by the powerful theories of the economist and scholar Thomas Malthus. Parliament decided that a census would be necessary – and it would also be useful to know how many men could be roused in an army against Napoleon.
The first British census was held in 1801 and was published in December that year, revealing a population of nearly 10 million across England, Scotland and Wales.
Censuses occurred every 10 years after that but the first four were essentially mere headcounts. It was 1841 that the first census as we know it came into being, with the focus on the names of all individuals living in each household.
Usually held in spring, census takers would deliver forms to homes, ask the head of each household to note the people who were sleeping there on a specific date – always a Sunday – and collect them a few days later. The forms were then painstakingly copied into “enumeration books”.
The artist JMW Turner was said to have rowed into the Thames for the night to escape being counted in 1841. It was a crime to avoid the census – as it remains to this day – although prosecutions are rare. In 1861 the registrar general said that refusal was “more or less connected with insanity”.
Even the famous were included. The 1881 census recorded Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle with two of her children, Leopold and Beatrice. Bram Stoker was recorded as living in Chelsea at 27 Cheyne Walk and working as a theatre manager, 16 years before publication of his novel Dracula.
In 1911, the illusionist and stunt performer Harry Houdini was recorded as living in Britain while on tour. His entry was made a few months after he almost died on stage in Leeds when he became stuck inside a barrel of Tetley’s beer, in the same year that he built his ‘Chinese water torture cell’, in which he was restrained and dangled upside down into a tank of water. He listed his occupation as “mysteriach”.
Censuses of countries in the British Empire were also carried out, but most of those conducted in Ireland during the 19th century were lost in a fire at the Dublin archives in 1922. Two other sets were destroyed over confidentiality concerns and another two were pulped in 1918, thought to be due to paper shortages during the First World War.
The questions we have to answer
Jobs
Many questions in the census are focused on your working status. You must declare if you have a job, if you are looking for one, if you are about to start one, where it is based and exactly what you do. This year’s will be the first census to ask if individuals are veterans of the armed forces.
The jobs section can lead to some curious answers. From the historical answers that have been released – nowadays this is always a century after the forms were filled in – we know that in 1841 there were nine false eye-makers, and in 1881 there was at least one “maker of sand-views” and one “gymnast to house painter”.
Gender and sex
There are two choices for sex: male or female, with no further options. This year, unlike in 2011, the word “female” comes first – because, according to the Office of National Statistics, it is both alphabetical order and women are of a greater number in society. The ONS considered adding a box saying “other”, with space to note details such as non-binary or intersex, but ultimately decided against this.
There are two new voluntary questions for over 16s this year about whether the respondent identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual or another sexual orientation, and whether the respondent’s gender is different from the sex they were registered as at birth.
Ethnicity
“What is your ethnic group?” was only added as a question in 1991, even though questions about so much else, even method of travel to work had been asked before. For this year’s census, a survey indicated that there were 55 ethnic groups which should be added, including Jewish being recognised as an ethnicity as well as a religion. However, the Office for National Statistics decided that the only major changes it would make were to include a tick-box option for Roma alongside the ‘Gypsy or Irish Traveller’, and to create “a write-in option for those selecting African within ‘Black African, Caribbean or Black British’ category to enable a more specific ethnic background to be recorded”.
Religion
In the 2001 census almost 400,000 people claimed that their religion was Jedi, just shy of 1 per cent of the population – and more than the Jewish population of the UK. By 2011, this emergent ‘religion’ had lost more than half of its adherents.
Family
According to other surveys, the fastest growing relationship status in Britain is cohabiting couples, particularly among opposite-sex couples, accounting for nearly 20 per cent of families – including that of the current Prime Minister. The choices on the census are still focused around whether you are married or single, however. “Civil partnership” can now be selected, but there is no specification for those who are partnered without being married. The sections on those who live with you allows for “son /daughter/step-child/grandchild”. The final box – “unrelated” – is where a foster child can be entered. Perhaps notions of what constitute a family might be more flexible in 2031.
Housing
In the 19th century, questions began to appear about the home, not just those who lived within it. The 1891 census asked for number of rooms occupied, if fewer than five. From 1951 to 1991, people were asked if they had an outdoor toilet. That question was replaced in 1991 by one asking about the presence of central heating. The census aims to get a clear picture of homes in Britain, how we live and even how many cars we have.
The Census continued to be carried out every 10 years. Although the 1941 survey was dropped due to the Second World War, a national survey had taken place two years previously so that everyone could be issued with a national identity card.
In the 1960s, the government pondered introducing a question about income, but the test groups didn’t like it and it was decided that people wouldn’t answer truthfully. Throughout history, the vast majority of people have been happy to be counted, as long as it’s not looking into how much we own – whether that’s butter, as for the Mesopotamians, or land for the conquered subjects of William the Conqueror.
Whether the tradition of these questionnaires continues remains to be seen. The UK’s national statistician, Professor Sir Ian Diamond, said last year that the 2021 edition could be the last ever carried out in this country. It still provides essential information for the Government and local councils to plan their services. However, Professor Diamond said that using “administrative data” from sources such as GP lists, council tax records, driving licence details and the Ordnance Survey mapping agency could be cheaper and quicker in future.
For now, however, it seems most of us are still willing to disclose our secrets to the confidential census on Sunday – just with no questions about the contents of our bank accounts, thank you very much.
Kate Williams is professor of public engagement with history at the University of Reading. Her most recent book is Rival Queens: The Betrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots (£10.99, Random House)